Re: Did anyone see today's "Ellen" show?

[Tony Calguire]

It's 11:59 and 59 seconds. Ronnie Bateman happened in rec.arts.tv today:

> I saw just a few minutes of it, but happened to see something really
> strange.
>
> Ellen was going to give a young audience member a benevolent gift to
> help her with college, but it seemed like the producer ran onstage and
> cut Ellen off just before she was about to (mistakenly?) say a sponsor
> was going to pay for all the girl's tuition...then Ellen said the girl
> was getting a free computer and the girl kinda giggled and said "Well, I
> *have* a computer...." And then there was an abrupt segue to some silly
> gift-giving reindeer dancing onstage.
>
> Something was badly botched here. Anyone else see this?
>

You don't watch a lot of Ellen, do you?

This is one of the ways that Ellen usually segues into her "12 Days of
Giveaways", which she's been doing every Christmas she's been on the air.
She'll set up a phony guest and then surprise the audience with the gift
segment.

[Rhino]

On 2015-12-08 9:07 PM, Ronnie Bateman wrote:
> I saw just a few minutes of it, but happened to see something really
> strange.
>
> Ellen was going to give a young audience member a benevolent gift to
> help her with college, but it seemed like the producer ran onstage and
> cut Ellen off just before she was about to (mistakenly?) say a sponsor
> was going to pay for all the girl's tuition...then Ellen said the girl
> was getting a free computer and the girl kinda giggled and said "Well, I
> *have* a computer...." And then there was an abrupt segue to some silly
> gift-giving reindeer dancing onstage.
>
> Something was badly botched here. Anyone else see this?
>

I didn't see it and it seems unlikely that it could have happened if
Ellen is taped, rather than live. That's *why* they tape, as I
understand it, so that if something doesn't go according to plan during
the show, they can re-shoot that part. This seems like a prime candidate
for a re-shoot. I have to imagine the director and various staff people
would have noticed this as it was happened, then yelled "cut!" and
proceeded to shoot that part again without the mistake.

For them to air this suggests *two* mistakes took place. First, there
was the error that you are reporting, then whoever edits and packages
the show for distribution edited in the bad take instead of the do-over
and sent that out. People are fallible so I think it's possible that
things happened this way but it does suggest a surprising lack of
professionalism.

I still remember a bumper sticker I saw once on a website. It said "I
get more ass than a toliet seat." and it was misspelled exactly the way
I did it: "toliet" instead of "toilet". Think about how many errors it
took for that to happen. First, the person who originally wrote the
words had to screw it up. Then, whoever he hired to print the bumper
stickers had to fail to see and correct the error (that might have
involved the person who took the order, another person who printed the
stickers, and maybe a supervisor or quality control person who failed to
see the mistake). Then, whoever built the website had to fail to see the
mistake (that too might have involved several people). Yet, despite the
various people eyeballing the work before it went public, every single
person either missed the error or decided it wasn't their job to point
out the problem. Maybe the same thing happened with Ellen's show.

--
Rhino

[anim8rfsk]

In article <n4840u$doi$1...@dont-email.me>,

Rhino <no_offline_c...@example.com> wrote:

> On 2015-12-08 9:07 PM, Ronnie Bateman wrote:
> > I saw just a few minutes of it, but happened to see something really
> > strange.
> >
> > Ellen was going to give a young audience member a benevolent gift to
> > help her with college, but it seemed like the producer ran onstage and
> > cut Ellen off just before she was about to (mistakenly?) say a sponsor
> > was going to pay for all the girl's tuition...then Ellen said the girl
> > was getting a free computer and the girl kinda giggled and said "Well, I
> > *have* a computer...." And then there was an abrupt segue to some silly
> > gift-giving reindeer dancing onstage.
> >
> > Something was badly botched here. Anyone else see this?
> >
> I didn't see it and it seems unlikely that it could have happened if
> Ellen is taped, rather than live. That's *why* they tape

Well, no. If they did live, they'd have to tape delay for everywhere
but the east coast anyway, so why bother?

Walgreens constantly has big expensive backlit plastic signs that them
must make for every location that are misspelled.

--
New sig pending

[anim8rfsk]

In article
<OurOwnRonnieBateman-...@88-209-239-213.giganet.hu>,
Ronnie Bateman <OurOwnRon...@earthlinc.net> wrote:

> Rhino <no_offline_c...@example.com> wrote:
>
> > I still remember a bumper sticker I saw once on a website. It said "I
> > get more ass than a toliet seat." and it was misspelled exactly the way
> > I did it: "toliet" instead of "toilet". Think about how many errors it
> > took for that to happen. First, the person who originally wrote the
> > words had to screw it up. Then, whoever he hired to print the bumper
> > stickers had to fail to see and correct the error (that might have
> > involved the person who took the order, another person who printed the
> > stickers, and maybe a supervisor or quality control person who failed to
> > see the mistake). Then, whoever built the website had to fail to see the
> > mistake (that too might have involved several people). Yet, despite the
> > various people eyeballing the work before it went public, every single
> > person either missed the error or decided it wasn't their job to point
> > out the problem. Maybe the same thing happened with Ellen's show.
>

> Similar phenomenon: I recently saw TWO professionally printed signs at
> an apartment complex signaling "VISTOR PARKING." Yeah, spelled just like
> that. This goof would be easier to understand if the signs were merely
> handwritten, but....

Oh! I've got one. Some years back a typesetting business opened
adjoining a print shop by my office. They sent invitations to the
neighbors for the grand opening. The envelope and card inside matched
design wise, both with a big red diagonal snip in the upper left corner:
one said

YOU'RE INVITED

and the other said

YOUR INVITED

This from a type house and print shop trying to get our business! They
actually got SENT OUT.

I'd have felt better if they'd both been wrong; at least they'd have
matched.

They didn't last long.

--
New sig pending

[BTR1701]

In article <n4840u$doi$1...@dont-email.me>,
Rhino <no_offline_c...@example.com> wrote:

> I still remember a bumper sticker I saw once on a website. It said "I
> get more ass than a toliet seat." and it was misspelled exactly the way
> I did it: "toliet" instead of "toilet". Think about how many errors it
> took for that to happen.

We just had a similar thing happen here in L.A.

CalTrans replaced an old freeway off-ramp sign for Los Feliz Boulevard--
a rather major road east of Hollywood-- and no one noticed it had been
printed "Los Fezil" until the sign was erected into place on the 5
Freeway. They sheepishly had to pull it back down and re-do it after it
became a big joke in the local media.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88475764/Sign2.jpg

And this isn't even the first time the bright lights at CalTrans f'ed up
a freeway sign. They put one up on the 710 for Olympic Boulevard and
spelled it "Olimpic"-- again without it being caught by anyone until it
was actually up on the freeway.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/88475764/Sign1.jpg

[Michael Black]

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015, Ronnie Bateman wrote:

> I saw just a few minutes of it, but happened to see something really
> strange.
>
> Ellen was going to give a young audience member a benevolent gift to
> help her with college, but it seemed like the producer ran onstage and
> cut Ellen off just before she was about to (mistakenly?) say a sponsor
> was going to pay for all the girl's tuition...then Ellen said the girl
> was getting a free computer and the girl kinda giggled and said "Well, I
> *have* a computer...." And then there was an abrupt segue to some silly
> gift-giving reindeer dancing onstage.
>
> Something was badly botched here. Anyone else see this?
>

I saw it, and it did seem odd.

People have already replied, and I see their point, but today it seemed
too abrupt. They just cut things off, the gifts are brought out, and
that's it. It didn't seem smooth. Ellen does like to suprise people, but
I don't see why she didn't just say "And you know what, it's a 12 Days of
Christmas show, and you're going to get everything".

The fact that the stage hand interrupted her made me expect something else
to happen, they didn't need that interruption to suddenly switch to the
gift giving.

So maybe they just had a dud way of doing it this time.

I noticed that all or most of the giveaway items today were gift cards.
I've been missing the show lately, so I don't know if today was merely
"gift card day" or they've given up giving the audience the actual
presents. That can get messy, but having the staff go into the audience
to hand out the presents seems to add to the whole spectacular. Of course,
maybe it just got too tedious.

Michael

[Michael Black]

But the audience already knew, which I see is another factor.

She'd already had some woman on who'd got a bone marrow transplant at 15,
and then invited the donor to her wedding. It seemed a less than great
interview, and then it ends with "and you get to stay and join the
audience for the Giveaway". So there couldn't have been any surprise when
this bit came up.

Michael

[Michael Black]

On Tue, 8 Dec 2015, Ronnie Bateman wrote:

> Tony Calguire <tc...@yahoo.invalid> wrote:
>
>>> I saw just a few minutes of it, but happened to see something really
>>> strange.
>>>
>>> Ellen was going to give a young audience member a benevolent gift to
>>> help her with college, but it seemed like the producer ran onstage and
>>> cut Ellen off just before she was about to (mistakenly?) say a sponsor
>>> was going to pay for all the girl's tuition...then Ellen said the girl
>>> was getting a free computer and the girl kinda giggled and said "Well, I
>>> *have* a computer...." And then there was an abrupt segue to some silly
>>> gift-giving reindeer dancing onstage.
>>

>> You don't watch a lot of Ellen, do you?
>

> No. I don't.

>
>> This is one of the ways that Ellen usually segues into her "12 Days of
>> Giveaways", which she's been doing every Christmas she's been on the air.
>> She'll set up a phony guest and then surprise the audience with the gift
>> segment.
>

> So you're saying the audience member getting the gift was just an actor?
>
Actually, that might have been the case. The woman didn't seem young
enough to be a student, she was sitting in the audience rather than
waiting backstage. And as I just said in another reply, Ellen had already
told the cancer victim (who'd invited her bone marrow donor to her
wedding) that they'd join the audience for the Giveaway.

The "student' said twice "I already have a computer" and it came across as
lame, so maybe it was acting.

The scene did seem like they flubbed it in some way, an idea that didn't
work out or wasn't implemented properly.

Michael

[Rhino]

How do you mean? Is "Walgreens" itself misspelled on each of these signs?

--
Rhino

[Rhino]

Whoever gives final approval to the production of signs there needs to
be replaced by someone who can spell or at least knows how to look up
the proper spelling of street names. Those are *major* errors and bring
the whole organization into disrepute.

--
Rhino

[Rhino]

I'm not sure producers ever really get when something is tedious. Look how
long some "bits" get done in talk shows. For example, Letterman was
doing Top 10 lists LONG after they stopped being very good.

Sometimes, things just become a ritual and keep getting done long after
they had a point.

--
Rhino

[BTR1701]

In article <n49cic$9a4$1...@dont-email.me>,

Bad spelling is the least of what brings CalTrans into disrepute,
believe me.

[Adam H. Kerman]

A few years ago, a highway sign with a number of highway numbers was erected
in conjunction with a new bridge and ramp. All the interstate numbers on
the sign had US highway shields. I spoke to the civil engineer about it;
he told me it would all be charged back to the sign contractor. That
one couldn't be blamed on the state highway sign department.

[anim8rfsk]

In article <n49cbu$6s6$1...@dont-email.me>,

No, it's stuff they put high on the walls indicating departments and
such. And they'll misspell the department, and routinely stick in
apostrophes in front of random Ss.

--
New sig pending

[anim8rfsk]

In article <n49i9k$gg1$1...@news.albasani.net>,

I dunno - they didn't bother to sign off on it?

--
New sig pending

[Adam H. Kerman]

The sign off may have been done with a backhoe. They were really pissed.

Bad puns aside, it was one of those weird circumstances in which a municipality
was the lead agency in this particular highway project. There's a tiny
community just east of Chicago O'Hare Airport that only incorporated post
war 'cuz Chicago refused to annex it. The northwest side of Chicago is
actually to the east but the airport campus is to the west. The airport
campus was annexed into the city, connected by a strip of land merely
one lot wide. It's beyond stupid. The suburb in question ended up developing
convention facilities and offices 'cuz it turns out that being adjacent
to an airport influences land use. Huh. Who knew?

Anyway, tollway construction in 1958 left an "island" of inaccessible land
between the tollway and a railroad yard. The tollway had to build a bridge
to get to the island. Years later, the municipality pushed for tollway
ramps, even paid for them, and built a bridge over the railroad yard
with more ramps to the highway west of the yard. It was the sign erected
for these ramps that was wrong. The highway provided access to the rest of the
interstates in the area.

Just this year, a bridge over the highway opened, which goes directly
onto the airport campus near the international terminal. More ramps
were built.

[anim8rfsk]

In article <n49kc0$k4h$1...@news.albasani.net>,

Claudia Christian just posted this:

https://scontent.fphx1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/t31.0-8/12308216_1015
3314425583581_3015493257913462053_o.jpg

--
New sig pending

[Adam H. Kerman]

anim8rfsk <anim...@cox.net> wrote:

>Claudia Christian just posted this:

>https://scontent.fphx1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/t31.0-8/12308216_10153314425583581_3015493257913462053_o.jpg

Hehehehehehe

[anim8rfsk]

In article <n49m4g$o2i$2...@news.albasani.net>,

"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.com> wrote:

Long ago and far away I was acting art director for an ad agency that
had this total idiot copywriter who had somehow through political
machinations maneuvered herself into a state of being bulletproof. One
time she wrote a series of horrendous stream of consciousness pieces for
Greyhound, that would accompany a picture of an old bus.

"Here I am, a soldier returning home to San Francisco after World War
Two, riding a 1952 Greyhound Supercruiser Deluxe XR92 Special. Look,
it's the Golden Gate Bridge! It really does look at though it were made
of gold!"

The conversations went something like this.

Barb, you're an idiot. People weren't coming home from WW2 on busses
built 7 years later. And the fucking Golden Gate Bridge is fucking
orange. It's not called that because it's fucking gold. It's fucking
called that because it fucking spans the fucking Golden Gate Strait.

But nothing ever got corrected. Almost.

"Here I am, riding a 1984 Greyhound Ultimo 9000 over under convert bus
into Miami. I feel just like Don Johnson driving his Mazerati!"

Barb, you ignorant slut. Why would riding in a bus make you feel like
you were driving a sports car? And THERE IS NO FUCKING Z IN FUCKING
MASERATI!

We did get the spelling of Maserati fixed. We didn't bother to bring up
that Don Johnson in 1984 wasn't driving a Maserati; he wasn't even
driving a Ferrari, he had some kit car made to look like it. But we had
to FIGHT to get a spelling correction.

And then retypeset it all because she'd make huge circles on the only
proof with a red pen.

--
New sig pending

[Michael Black]

On Wed, 9 Dec 2015, super70s wrote:

> In article <n4839p$dir$1...@dont-email.me>,

> Tony Calguire <tc...@yahoo.invalid> wrote:
>
>> This is one of the ways that Ellen usually segues into her "12 Days
>> of Giveaways", which she's been doing every Christmas she's been on
>> the air.
>

> Just out of curiosity what follows "Black Friday Deals Week," "Cyber
> Monday Deals Week" and then "12 Days of Deals" (Amazon has the latter
> promotion going on now). Something like "Last-Minute Deals Week"?
>
Surely it must be "The Twelve Deals before Christmas".

Actually, I think a lot of shows go into reruns, which is why this
giveaway airs earlier in December.

Who has time to watch tv when the last minute Christmas rush is on?

Though, apparently The View will be having a Raven Birthday Bash this
week, maybe tomorrow but I missed the actual date. "And, everyone in the
audience will be getting everything we've shown here on stage".


Michael

[lifeina...@gmail.com]

I noticed that too and just went searching for what happened to. Ellen even said "Well, this is awkward".

[lifeina...@gmail.com]

It felt awkward. All in saying.

[lama...@gmail.com]

I saw it and it seemed very awkward and was looking online for an explanation. But no explanation. I thought Ellen looked very bad and cheap. You'd think that if Shutterfly didn't come through that Ellen would have personally.
Weird.

[brendar...@gmail.com]

I was so embarrassed for this college student. She was obviously slated to get her tuition paid for and for some reason, Shutterfly did not come through...And unlike Operah...neither did Ellen...